The flashing blade of Indika Senarathne sent league and club records tumbling as Mistley battered Witham at New Road in the premier division.
The Sri Lankan star’s incredible unbeaten score of 281 from just 129 balls was not only a record for him and his club, but it was also the highest individual score in the history of the North Essex League.
Senarathne plundered 28 fours and 16 sixes in an unbroken second-wicket partnership of 461 with Graeme Butcher on a day that bottom-placed Witham’s bowlers will want to forget as Mistley gained revenge for their defeat by Witham earlier in the season.
In almost any other match, Butcher’s own score of 176 not out would have taken the headlines, but it was the Sri Lankan who wrote his name into the record books in emphatic style, eclipsing the 272 that Abberton’s Steve Snell struck last year.
Mistley captain Mark Mills said: “I was a spectator for much of the game, but Indika was brutal and his innings is easily the best I have ever seen.
“Anything off line was dispatched, but that wasn’t necessarily a criteria as anything he decided would go, did so.
“At one time he hit four consecutive sixes and then later he hit three more in a row.
“I fancied our chances of getting 300 on that wicket, as we had just fallen short of that the week before against Copford, but I didn’t expect almost 500.
“Graeme struggled a bit for runs early in the season, but his form will surely see him knocking on the door of the firsts again.”
Mistley’s total of 479 for one was the third highest score that any team has ever recorded in the competition’s history and it was one that Witham were always going to struggle to match.
Having won the toss, Mills had no hesitation in batting and opener Danny Goff raced to a run-a-ball 15 before falling to a good catch in the slips off the bowling of Paul Bellehuwe.
However, all that achieved was to bring Senarathne to the crease.
He and Butcher had contrasting styles with Butcher content to build his innings with singles on offer, while his partner brutalised the bowling on his way to his second three-figure score in as many league games and a batting aggregate of 548 from eight innings this year.
In reply, Witham’s cause was helped by Rodgers’ unbeaten 112, which helped secure full batting points, but the last wicket fell to the penultimate ball of the innings as they were dismissed for a compartively low 262.
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